How trending status and online ratings affect prices of homogeneous products

Koçaş, Cenk and Akkan, Can (2016) How trending status and online ratings affect prices of homogeneous products. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 20 (3). pp. 384-407. ISSN 1086-4415 (Print) 1557-9301 (Online)

This is the latest version of this item.

[thumbnail of Trending_Status_and_Online_Ratings_on_Price.pdf] PDF
Trending_Status_and_Online_Ratings_on_Price.pdf
Restricted to Registered users only

Download (308kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

The online retailing environment has grown more complex with the myriad information items available for customers to peruse. Two such information items include the trending lists of currently popular products, and online customer reviews and ratings of products. A trending product is one that relatively large groups of people are currently browsing, purchasing, or discussing. In this paper, we analyze the pricing implications of both types of information items. Our main goal is to test whether, acting as signals of desirability and popularity, a trending status or high ratings and reviews can lead to price cuts on homogeneous products. We provide empirical support for a model that demonstrates these relationships using data on books from twenty-four categories of Amazon.com. An important theoretical contribution of our model is that even in the absence of strategic considerations or demand dependencies, our model suggests lower prices for trending and positively reviewed products. Our work shows that pricing systems using popularity and average customer ratings as inputs can help achieve increased profitability.
Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: eWoM; game theory; online pricing; online ratings; online reviews; trending products
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory > HB135-147 Mathematical economics. Quantitative methods
Divisions: Sabancı Business School
Sabancı Business School > Marketing
Sabancı Business School > Operations Management and Information Systems
Depositing User: Cenk Koçaş
Date Deposited: 25 Oct 2016 15:26
Last Modified: 26 Apr 2022 09:37
URI: https://research.sabanciuniv.edu/id/eprint/30154

Available Versions of this Item

Actions (login required)

View Item
View Item